The young star went off after just 17 minutes as Kerry overcame the sending off of two players to record an away victory in Castlebar

By Darragh Small

3rd February 2018,10:19 pm

Updated: 4th February 2018,6:13 pm

KERRY finished with 13 men but their only real worry in Castlebar was an injury to David Clifford as they made it two wins from two.

Gavin Crowley scored the Kerry goal as they followed up their narrow win over Donegal with a second two-point haul — and a mini-revenge over the team who beat them in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final.

“The younger lads are getting great experience playing against Division 1 teams and the tough battles and everything that brings with it. Exposing the young players to that is probably the most pleasing thing.”

Mayo had won in four of their five attempts against an Eamonn Fitzmaurice-led Kerry in the NFL but started slowly at McHale Park as Burns and Barry John Keane kicked the Kingdom into a two-point lead.

Evan Regan and Barry Moran tied it up but Kerry hit three in a row through O’Shea, Barry O’Sullivan and Paul Geaney, only for Stephen Rochford’s men to fire a brilliant goal.

O’Connor drove down the right wing and collected Aidan O’Shea’s pass before blasting to the net low past Shane Murphy.

Clifford restored Kerry’s lead but the youngster then pulled up and had to leave the field injured in the 17th minute.

O’Shea and Keane kicked Kerry three ahead and it should have been more — not least because O’Shea had a penalty saved by David Clarke after Geaney was fouled by Brendan Harrison.

Keane and Burns gave Kerry a 0-10 to 1-2 advantage with just one minute of normal time remaining in the first half but the game turned again just before half-time and it all stemmed from another penalty.

Regan was hauled down and O’Connor stepped up to calmly slot the ball to the bottom corner.

And Jason Doherty’s free meant the hosts were only one adrift at the break — 0-10 to 2-3.

With their tails up, Mayo kept Kerry waiting before they returned for the start of the second half, and once they got on Doherty quickly added a free and the teams were level again.

But Mayo were hit by a sucker-punch when Keane put Crowley through and he finished to the net past David Clarke.

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